


Water Dancing

by Lorca_McAlias



Category: Pepper&Carrot (Webcomic)
Genre: Costume Parties & Masquerades, F/F, Inspired by Romeo and Juliet, Referenced Past War, Teen Crush, Under the Sea, Underwater city, Witches
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-10-26
Updated: 2020-10-26
Packaged: 2021-03-09 03:15:24
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,295
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27207238
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Lorca_McAlias/pseuds/Lorca_McAlias
Summary: Life as a witch of Hereva can be stressful. To blow off stream, the girls go to a masquerade ball down in Aquah, where Saffron runs into someone she's met before.
Relationships: Saffron/Spirulina
Comments: 1
Kudos: 2





	Water Dancing

**Author's Note:**

> As you might have guessed from the tags this isn't just based on Pepper&Carrot, but also on Romeo and Juliet by William Shakespeare, which is based on The Tragical History of Romeus and Juliet by Arthur Brooke, which is a translation of a translation of Giuletta e Romeo by Matteo Bandello, which is based on Giulietta e Romeo by Luigi da Porto, which is mostly based on the story of Mariotto and Gianozza by Masuccio Salernitano but also draws from Pyramus and Thisbe and Boccaccio's Decameron. Unless some troll decided to screw with the Wikipedia page the same day I'm copying this down, that is. So uh … perpetual copyright bad, because if all those people had to track down Salernitano's heirs to get their permission to write their thing that would be a grand mess.
> 
> (Fun fact: I don't know about any of the others, but in Arthur Brooke's version the story takes place over several months, meaning the leads had some time to actually get to know each other. So if that had been the one that got famous...)
> 
> Oh, and here's a link to Pepper&Carrot: https://www.peppercarrot.com

Most days Saffron loved the independence that came with being self-employed. But the trouble with independence is that when there's a problem, one cannot tell the problem to go talk to ones colleagues. Today's problems were, firstly, a Komona city official who disagreed with Saffron on who should pay for the city council changing their minds as to the specifics of their request seven times. Then, there was a private client who seemed to have mistaken Saffron for one of those half-intelligent robots. She had explained quite clearly that she didn't have any spiderwort in stock and so any potion requiring it couldn't be made any sooner than Cetoday. So of course the genius client just tried different ways to phrase the question.

So, when Pepper came by with her goodness knows what problems just when Saffron was about to get herself some tea, she might have told her “I'm busy.” before Pepper had a chance to say what she came for. And when Coriander came by she might have greeted her with “Gah! Now what?!” And Saffron might have slammed the door in Shichimi's face – just a little bit.

The next day Saffron sent her friends vague apologies, just slightly above “Mistakes were made” level, and with no real explanation for her behavior. So Coriander and Shichimi went to Pepper to ask if she knew what was going on with Saffron. Going behind Saffron's back like this might not be the height of politeness, but Saffron probably wasn't in the mood to explain herself multiple times either. Which turned out to be a moot point since Pepper didn't know anything more than they did.

“Maybe she's just stressed out.” Shichimi offered.

“Stressed? About what?” Coriander asked.

Unfortunately, the one person who would actually know that was up in Komona.

* * *

“I don't want to talk about my feelings!” Saffron said.

“And you don't have to.” Pepper did a fairly good job at not sounding relieved. “But now that we're all here maybe we can do something together.”

Saffron sighed a big sigh and started talking about her feelings.

“Damn right you're upset.” said Coriander “The city should be protecting the rights of freelancers, not exploiting them themselves.”

Pepper mumbled something that sounded a bit like “Doesn't mean she has to take it out on us.” She would have also mumbled something about how it's not like Saffron is about to run out of money any time soon, but mumbling two sentences in one conversation is a bit much.

Out loud she said “It sounds like we could all use a vacation. Aquah is holding a masquerade ball tonight. We should go.”

“Oh, you have tickets?” Shichimi asked.

“Um –” Pepper said.

* * *

Finding – or making – costumes that work under water was surprisingly easy. Just stay away from paper and paper products, and almost all other materials will work. Cloth does fine under water, as do glass and glazed clay. Untreated wood might rot eventually, but not within one night. Metal, straw, bone, all good.

Pepper went as a demon, with a wooden mask and a costume made of an old curtain tied loosely around her body, with rags tied around her wrists and ankles for added detail. It was thrown together from things she already had around the house, but since it was thrown together by someone who actually knew what a demon looked like it could pass for looking ratty as a stylistic choice. Saffron had rented a dancer's costume with plenty of fringes and bare arms and legs. Her mask was a wide band of lace which covered the upper half of her face. She'd had the fabric shop make her a simple belt of the same lace to tie her costume together. Coriander went as a dragon, with a textured bodice, tights and sleeves with a detailed scale pattern painted on, and wings made of rubber with wire boning. Her mask was made of the same materials as her wings. And Shichimi, with a beautiful mask which looked to be made of actual silver, went as a witch of Ah.

“Clever.” Pepper said. “But how do you plan to swim in those robes?”

Some improvisation and borrowed clothes later, Shichimi, with a beautiful mask which looked to be made of actual silver, went as a Komonan businesswoman.

The girls went to the seaside together, drank their water-breathing potions (the advanced kind that gives you a tingling feeling an hour before it stops working) and took the plunge.

Aquah was a beautiful underwater city. Unfortunately I suck at describing scenery, so that's all you're getting.

The palace the ball was held at was also quite nice, with swirling shiny decorative details on the matte white walls. The shiny stuff looked like it might have been gold, but this far under water it was a bit hard for the land-born witches to make out colors. The structure of the room itself was very three-dimensional. The floor was curved and had windows like any other wall, and the slabs sticking out of the side wall that served as refreshment tables were stacked on top of each other rather than side by side.

Fortunately, the girls already had some experience moving in three dimensions from flying their brooms. Saffron made her way to the refreshments tables. Shelves. Whatever. There were shrimp, seaweed, and whole and sliced mystery plant things, as she expected, but also what looked like baked goods. Saffron decided to give a triangular little cake-like thing a try. It tasted sweet and spicy, and had a texture a bit like that of boiled dumplings.

A girl her age wearing a dolphin costume swam up to her. Dolphin girl wore a half mask with a long snout and had a dorsal fin strapped to her back, but otherwise her costume looked to be about 90% body paint. She also had long, intricately braided hair. “Those uyvit are pretty good, huh.” she said.

Saffron nodded. She was feeling a bit off balance. She was used to being the center of attention. Here, she was just another face in the crowd, and had better keep it that way or else she and her friends could get discovered and kicked out. Still, she knew that the best way to act natural is to not think too hard about what you say or do. So she just went and said “I like your body paint. And your hair. Did you do it yourself?”

Dolphin girl blushed a bit. “No, that was my sister.”

“She did a good job. It looks nice on you.”

“Thanks, I'll be sure to tell her that. Who should I say it's from?”

“… the girl with fringes on her costume?” Saffron tried to sound like she was joking, but it came out a bit more nervous than she intended.

“Come on, don't get shy now. I'll start. My name is Spirulina.”

“Spirulina!”

Yes, it was indeed her. Apparently for being the only witch of Aquah most Komonans had ever seen she wasn't that famous down here, since she was looking a bit bewildered that her name could inspire that kind of reaction.

“... Do I know you...”

“I'm Saffron.”

“Saffron? The witch of Magmah? But how...”

“I used a potion to breathe under water.” And hopefully that would be enough to keep Spirulina from asking if she was even invited.

“Now that you're here, shall we dance?” Seems like it worked.

“I don't know that many water dances.”

“Then I'll teach you.”

The dance they did was simple yet challenging. It involved quite a lot of swirling around each other without touching, and Saffron, who was an intermediate level swimmer at best, was having trouble completing the moves in time with the music. But Spirulina was a patient teacher, and after a while she started to get the hang of it.

“You're very brave to have come here.” Spirulina remarked.

“That's one way to put it.” Saffron was feeling more foolish than brave, as she had realized that their not getting caught yet had more to do with dumb luck than the plan being any good.

“Don't sell yourself short. It is brave for a witch of Magmah to come here, considering our history.” Saffron, open-minded city girl that she was, hadn't even considered that.

“The war ended before I was born. Why should I let it determine who I dance with?”

“There is some wisdom in that, but Ms. Nori fought in the war, and she lets it determine who she invites to her parties.” Spirulina winked at Saffron, who certainly did not gape at her like a fish for half a second before composing herself.

“You got me there.” Saffron grinned. If Spirulina were going to expose her she would have done so by now.

The next song was slower, and to Saffron's ears it sounded a bit romantic.

“Do people kiss down here?” she asked.

“Yes.” Spirulina answered simply. A moment later she started to get a bit flustered, as if she'd just realized why Saffron might have asked that. “Ah, were you just asking or do you actually want to …”

“Yes, but only if you want to, too.”

“I … I would like to, but I don't want to smudge my paint.”

Ah. That. “I'll just stick to a little kiss on the nose, then.” And Saffron leaned forward and kissed the nose of Spirulina's dolphin mask.

All this talk of kissing was making Saffron feel tingly all over. No, wait …

“I gotta go.” she said, “I think my potion's starting to wear off.”

“You'd better hurry then. Goodbye, I hope to see you again some day.”

“We will.” Saffron said, and went to rendezvous with her land-born friends by the exit.

* * *

The first thing Saffron should have done after Shichimi had finished returning her “costume” was to dry her hair and go to bed. What she actually did was swing by the place where they got the water-breathing potions to see if it was still open. Lucky for her it wasn't.

In the morning she was back, to ask how soon she could take another potion. She wanted to see Spirulina again, and Spirulina had said she'd wanted to see her again, too. Though maybe Spirulina hadn't meant it exactly like that.

All the more reason to contact her as soon as possible to clear that all up. When the shopkeeper politely asked where she was going this time Saffron realized that she didn't have Spirulina's address or really knew where anything in Aquah was. Pepper had found out about the ball in the first place, so maybe she knew more about it.

“Shouldn't you be working?” Pepper asked.

“I'm self-employed, I can do what I want.”

“So am I, but … wait, are you in love?”

“Ha! Me, in love with someone I just met? Of course not, Pepper, don't be ridiculous.”

“If you say so. Well, I don't know where to find Spirulina either, but I can give you some general directions for how to get around Aquah.”

Saffron boldly decided to go without a disguise, until she was at a park and heard a voice say “Hi, Ms. Nori!”

Ms. Nori hadn't seen her yet, and Saffron dove into a patch of seaweed before that could change. As she was hiding there, she noticed that on the other side of the patch there was a little clearing, technically part of the park but still secluded and private. And as she was noticing that, Spirulina entered the clearing.

“Oh, why did it have to be Saffron?” she said to herself. “Why couldn't I feel this way about someone from any of the other schools? What is a school, anyway? Surely knowledge is knowledge and skills are skills. It's only people who try to put it all into separate boxes for ease of learning. Let's start our own school … no, wait, then there'd just be seven of them instead of six. That wouldn't solve anything. Let's … let's … I don't know.”

“Let's go on a date.” Saffron said, coming out of her hiding spot.

“What, now?” Spirulina asked.

“Sure, unless you're busy.”

“Oh barnacles, I'd forgotten all about fixing my uncle's house! Say, since we danced down here how about for our next date we meet up in Komona. Does next Azarday sound good to you?”

“That works.”

“Great, see you then, bye!” and Spirulina sped off.

* * *

In Komona there was a bit of a debate as to whether cafe's and restaurants should be open on Zero's Day and Azarday. On the one hand, people who liked to go out to eat thought they should, or at least that it should be allowed. On the other hand, the waiters of Komona wanted the same days off as everyone else.

I just arbitrarily decided this tale takes place in a year the waiters were listened to, so Saffron took Spirulina on some kind of a picnic for their date. It was in the city's botanical gardens, which is another thing I just arbitrarily decided exists, in a spot with chairs and tables for just such a purpose. The topic of conversation had drifted to business. Or rather, the topic of Saffron's talking had drifted to business. To her credit, Spirulina was doing a pretty good job at pretending not to be bored out of her mind.

“Enough about me, let's talk about you.” Saffron said in a vain attempt to turn things around. So Spirulina started talking about things Spirulina cared about and Saffron didn't.

“So, shall we meet again next week?” she finally asked.

“Can we make it the week after that?” Saffron replied.

“How about next month?”

“Or we could _not_ do this again.”

And Spirulina wasn't even angry. If anything she looked relieved.


End file.
